No plan for loan waiver, Rupala

New Delhi: Minister of State for Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Parshottam Rupala  informed lok Sabha on Tuesday  that government, at present, is not considering any loan waiver Scheme for farmers, as such, waivers may impact the credit culture of a State by incentivising the defaulters, even if they are in a position to repay the loan.

He also said that various State Governments including Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Union Territory (UT) of Puducherry have in the recent past announced their own farm loan waiver Schemes to extend relief to the needy farmers.

Tamil Nadu waived off Rs 5,318 crore to provide relief to 12,02,075 farmers while Maharashtra’s debt waiver of Rs 30,500 crore benefitted 31 lakh farmers.

The Karnataka government scheme covered 22 lakh farmers with amount of debt waiver of Rs 8,165 crore while Uttar Pradesh allocated Rs 36,359 crore for loan relief.

Jammu & Kashmir waived was Rs 244 crore for 1.15 lakh farmers while Punjab Government announced debt waiver to the tune of Rs 10,000 crore covering 10 lakh farmers, as per the Minister.

Chhattisgarh government announced 25 per cent of debt amounting to Rs 129.76 crore for 1,89,379 farmers.

The Minister also told that Puducherry announced the agriculture loan waiver covering loans of all agricultural and allied activities availed through the cooperative structure.